Have you ever wondered why WordPress will still be used by 2025 among businesses, bloggers, and developers, even with dozens of flashy new website builders popping up? With the abundance of all these Content Management Systems (CMS), to be more precise on which one sets itself apart can feel truly daunting.

No matter if you are setting up a personal blog, an e-commerce site, or a corporate site, picking the best CMS is key. It impacts how fast your site loads, how visible it is in the search engines, how easy (or at times impossible) it is to update, and even long-term costs.

Which is why today we’re peeling the layers and showing you the why WordPress is better than other platforms against top platforms such as Wix, Shopify, Squarespace in this 2025 CMS comparison.

We will cover some actual benefits (e.g. WordPress SEO functionalities and plugin portability, customizability, and total site sovereignty)If you are asking yourself: “Is WordPress the best CMS?” or “What does it look like in today’s world?” — read on!

In this article, we are going to uncover the facts, debunk some myths and help you make an informed decision about whether WordPress for your needs in 2025 will indeed remain the best CMS platform.

Table of Contents

1. Market Share & Popularity in 2025

If you are still undecided about picking the best content management system, here are some numbers to get your spine to argue. As of 2025, more than 43.5% of all websites were powered by WordPress (WPZoom)—stats speak, global endorsements.

Why does this matter to you?

Because when millions of businesses, bloggers, and developers choose one platform, they’re doing so for good reason. The widespread adoption of WordPress means:

Constant innovation backed by a thriving open-source community.
A massive selection of themes, plugins, and integrations.
Better security patches and long-term support.

Compare that to lesser-known or proprietary CMS platforms, and you’ll find a major difference in scalability and flexibility.

WordPress vs Other CMS Platforms: Who’s Winning?

Here is a quick comparison of WordPress with some of its biggest competitors in terms of popularity:

WordPress – ~43.5% of the web (and still growing)
Shopify – ~4.5%
Wix – ~3.7%
Squarespace – ~2.1%
Joomla, Drupal, and others – dwindling or stagnant

It’s not just first come, first served, but also how to compete for years thereafter. From small blog to a Forte 500 site, WordPress has what is needed to scale and thrive in the tools of 2025.

Trust Built Over Time

WordPress is not only popular, it’s trusted. Performance, control, and customization on WordPress have major brands such as BBC, The New Yorker, and TechCrunch as users because other CMS platforms cannot competeWordPress

And for you? That means a reliable foundation for whatever you’re building—be it a personal brand or a full-fledged eCommerce empire.

2. Ease of Use and Flexibility

To be honest, no one likes fighting with poorly performing dashboards or cumbersome code when the goal is a website. Whether you code like a madman, or become a total beginner when using WordPress to create and edit websites with CMS, it is one of the easiest website builder on earth.

A No-Code Website Builder (Meh, no coding required.)

A True Easy Website Builder (No Coding Required)

Not a developer? No problem.

WordPress shines as an easy website builder, thanks to:

Drag and Drop element Builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Gutenberg
Platforms Themes built with blogs, portfolios, business sites built and online stores in mind.
Live preview editing so you can tweak things visually—no HTML headaches.

If you’ve never built a site before, WordPress will have the confidence to deploy you without paying for a developer.

“Zero Coding Experience here, I built my First WordPress site in a weekend, and it runs smoothly till today.”

Freedom to Customize Everything

WordPress truly outshines other platforms in flexibility. You’re not limited to one layout or feature set like you are with closed systems such as Wix or Squarespace.

With WordPress, you can:

Change themes or redesign without losing your content.
Add advanced features using over 59,000 plugins (many of them free).
Adjust your site’s layout, fonts, and colors — even insert custom code if needed.

WordPress customization options to this level are a big win for businesses that anticipate growth, re-platforming, or scaling.

Built for All Skill Levels

Here’s what makes WordPress unique: it grows with you.

Beginners love the intuitive dashboard and one-click installers.
Intermediate users enjoy theme control and plugin variety.
Developers appreciate the open-source codebase, hooks, and REST API.

Unlike rigid builders, WordPress offers room to evolve, so you’re never boxed in.

WordPress vs Other CMS: Who Wins on Flexibility?

In the battle of WordPress vs other CMS platforms, very few offer the same level of balance between ease and power. Many CMS platforms end up being either too simple (restricting user capabilities) or too technical to be used by the average person.

For this reason, WordPress is considered the best CMS to be used for SEO and customizing — as it really does not force a choice between the two.

3. SEO and Marketing Capabilities

Visualise your website as a shop on a main road. You have a perfect product, an eye-catching mall— but when no one can find you, is it really a deal? If so, then this is where SEO comes in and the number one reason why WordPress is better than most CMS.

Designed with SEO in Mind (Right Out of the Box)

WordPress isn’t just SEO-friendly—it’s SEO-first. Unlike many website builders that require extra tools just to get basic search visibility, WordPress offers:

Clean code and semantic structure
Fast loading times (great for website speed and performance)
Easy integration with Google Analytics and Search Console
Built-in blog features to help you rank for long-tail keywords

Plus, with popular plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math, optimizing your site becomes as easy as filling out a form.

Why WordPress Wins the SEO Race

When you compare WordPress vs Wix vs Shopify on SEO, WordPress consistently comes out ahead. Here’s why:

Wix: Limited control over URLs, slower page speeds.
Shopify: Good for e-commerce, but lacks full SEO flexibility.
WordPress: Total freedom over metadata, URLs, image alt tags, and schema.

Need proof? Just Google any major blog or tutorial—chances are, it’s built on WordPress.

WordPress Is Built for Content Marketing

If content is the backbone of your digital strategy, WordPress is your strongest ally. You can:

Create blog posts, landing pages, and custom content types with ease.
Schedule and update posts in bulk.
Categories, tags, and internal linking to improve site organization

This will make WordPress the best CMS platform in 2025 for brands that value SEO and lead gen, and organic traffic.

Seamless Marketing Integrations

Want to run email campaigns, track conversions, or create lead magnets? WordPress integrates smoothly with:

Mailchimp, ConvertKit, HubSpot
Google Ads and Facebook Pixel
CRM systems and automation tools

So you’re not just building a site—you’re building a marketing machine

4. Design, Themes, and Plugin Ecosystem

Let’s get real—first impressions are incredibly important. And your design, whether you are creating a personal blog or a corporate site, essentially has to stand for trust. And that is why WordPress really kills it.

Thousands of WordPress Themes are available for every need

Whether you write about “How to get rich quick”, jewelry, or Kubernetes, WordPress has the theme for you. There are over 11,000 free and premium themes to choose from.

Here’s why WordPress themes and plugins are a revolution:

Pre-designed layouts that look stunning and professional
Mobile-responsive designs that work on all screen sizes
Easy customization with live preview (no need to touch code)
Options for bloggers, portfolio sites, e-commerce stores, and more

Need something unique? Either you can get a designer to create a custom WordPress theme(or modify an existing one) or design your own.

The Plugin Ecosystem: Add Features in a Click

Think of adding contact forms, galleries, e-commerce, SEO tools, popups, & speed optimization…ALL WITHOUT WRITING A SINGLE LINE OF CODE.

That’s exactly what plugins do.

With over 59,000 plugins, WordPress transforms from a simple blog to a full-fledged digital powerhouse. Here are some popular plugin categories:

SEO: Yoast SEO, Rank Math
E-commerce: WooCommerce
Page builders: Elementor, WPBakery
Security: Wordfence, iThemes Security
Performance: WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache

Unlike closed platforms where you’re stuck with built-in tools, WordPress gives you total control over your website’s features.

Customize Everything (No Tech Team Needed)

Want to change your site’s look and feel? WordPress gives you unmatched customization options:

Upload your fonts and branding
Change headers, footers, and page layouts
Use widgets, shortcodes, and Gutenberg blocks for creative design

This makes WordPress especially attractive when you compare WordPress vs other CMS platforms, many of which restrict advanced styling unless you pay more or hire a developer.

Built for Growth and Scalability

Your business might start small, but WordPress is ready to grow with you. As your audience grows, you can:

Add features without switching platforms
Upgrade to premium plugins or custom code
Scale to handle more traffic without breaking your design

That’s one reason why WordPress is the best CMS platform in 2025 for businesses that want flexibility now and room to grow later.

5. Website Ownership and Control

When you are building a website, do not think all you have to do is set up an online portal — you are creating an investment. And the control you have over that asset can make all the difference. That’s where WordPress truly stands out compared to other content management systems.

Full Control of Your Site (No Limit)

WordPress is not you limited to some proprietary platform; WordPress gives you less control based on someone else’s rule. WordPress is open-source unlike WIX, or Squarespace or Shopify that lock you up their silos—you have control of your website as you can see the code — data features are yours!

You can:

Move your site to a different host whenever you want.
Modify the code to suit your exact needs.
Own 100% of your content and customer data.

WordPress: The Ultimate Freedom for Website Owners

Here’s what website ownership and control look like with WordPress:

100% customizable: You can touch the layout customizations, back-end changes as your heart desires.
Disabled no platform restrictions: You do not have to spend on upgrades, extensions, or features you don’t want.
No hosting bondage: Shopify and Wix come with their servers, you can switch to any hosting provider based on performance & budget.

WordPress gives you the autonomy to build and manage your website your way, without compromises.

Security and Backups: You’re in Charge

Security is one of the biggest issues for any website owner. WordPress doesn’t fail at this. Besides being a great piece of WordPress security with a lot of updates, it is also yours to protect. You can:

Choose your security plugins and tools (e.g., Wordfence, Sucuri).
Create daily backups( plugins are UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy).
Limit who can access your website and set permissions for multiple users.

It means that you are not using a third party to protect your data. You are the boss.

WordPress vs Other CMS : Who Owns Your Site?

With closed platforms, your website and its data are essentially rented. If ever you plan to move away from the platform, you might run into large transfer fees or fewer migration options

WordPress as opposed that you are the master. No one can lock you into their ecosystem, you are the administrator of your website so to speak.

6. Security and Updates

On the running of a website, Security is no less important. More cyber threats are coming up each year, so you need a platform that helps to secure your site and is regularly updated. You get the tools and the confidence of WordPress, so that you can grow your website.

Strong Core Security Features

WordPress has a lot built in to protect your site from the most common vulnerabilities that come with any CMS.

No website platform is immune, WordPress is threatened by regular threats. Even though the obvious;

Core updates: Core gets updated frequently with security patches, keeping your site updated and secure.
Roles y permissos del usuario: controlar quién puede ver tu sitio, para que los usuarios no autorizados no puedan hacer cambios.
Gain Login protection: 2FA, login attempt limits to secure the process of login.

Every single one of those mentioned above are intended to simplify WordPress security for people (even me, since I am not a tech genius).

The Power of Plugins for Added Protection

WordPress plugin ecosystem for WordPress goes beyond design and function — some of the best security plugins in the world are available on WordPress. You can further protect your site with:

Wordfence: An all-in-one security plugin with firewalling, malware scanner, and login security.
By Sucuri: Strong security solution (website firewall, malware removal, and real-time notifications)
iThemes Security: Secures over 30 Tons of Hacks and Malicious attacks for your Site

WordPress enables you to tweak this across all kinds of needs and thus helps the site be secure from known threats that you have.

Automatic Updates — Less Stress, More Secure.

Updating your website is a major pain in the ass and not having that headache is a great relief. WordPress does quite a bit to alleviate this. By default, WordPress makes…

Core updates: WordPress is updating its core files to the latest version incrementally through the regular update process.
Plugin and theme updates:Make sure to keep the majority of your plugins and themes updated as this keeps the site running the latest, most secure versions possible.

This will enable you to have less time for maintenance and more time to work on increasing your website.

WordPress vs Other CMS: Security in the Long Run

A comparison of the security features in WordPress vs different CMS platforms makes WordPress win for both novice and experienced users. Although Wix or Squarespace are a secure platform itself, WordPress can be even more secure — especially if you have the ability to utilise third-party security plugins, cherry-pick or do scheduled updates manually and pro-actively take actions to offset any risks.

7. Cost Efficiency

Cost is critical when it comes to building and supporting a website. As a business or individual wanting to build a site, you want the best return on your money for the website, but don’t want to go broke in the process. WordPress, one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) available right now.

Affordable Starting Costs

WordPress is pretty good when it comes to affordable entry-level WordPress. Here’s why:

Free Core Software: WordPress itself is open-source and can be downloaded for free.
Budget Hosting Services: WordPress as a platform can run on both budget hosting, like many from Bluehost or SiteGround (@₹200-₹500/month).
Free Themes and Plugins: There are plenty of free templates and plugins out there to help you create a website without paying for high-cost items. Here you will find everything from SEO plugins like Yoast to page builders for free.

There are a lot of premium features and themes to choose from, however many users find that the free ones are more than enough to get you up and running which is why WordPress is great for some with a shoestring budget.

Cost-Effective E-commerce Solution

For an e-commerce website, WordPress offers one of the cheapest solutions that I have found. Utilise the WooCommerce plugin to turn your site into an actual online store with a fraction of the high fees that other platforms such as Shopify charge.

No transaction fees: Unlike Shopify where they charge transaction fees on every sale in WooCommerce their fees are merely an addition to the payment gateway surcharge.
Scalable: You can get more features with less cost as your business expands. For example, if you just require something a little more complex for payment options, added product pages or advanced customer service options, you can include them in your store without paying for unnecessary bells and whistles.

WooCommerce is a full-fledged e-commerce platform with a high degree of customization, fully compatible with WordPress. It is perfect for SMBs that want to control expenses while also scaling effectively

Long-Term Value: Low Maintenance Costs

One of the best hidden advantage of WordPress is low long term maintenance cost. WordPress does not need the same ongoing subscription or forced upgrades like a few other CMS platforms.

Manage your hosting: You determine where and how your website is hosted, allowing you to opt for cheaper options that cater to your requirements.
Update and manage plugins: Just be careful, not all premium plugins are monthly subscriptions; it might be a one-time cost.
Freedom from platform lock-in: There is no need to fear price increases or bump-in-the-road feature upgrades, as you would on proprietary platforms. You can expand and change with as you need without the currency for more customizations.

WordPress vs Other CMS: Which is More Affordable?

The cost efficiency of WordPress vs other CMS platforms comparison (Wix or Squarespace) will become apparent once. At first glance, these platforms may look cheaper but then often charge hidden fees:

Subscription fees: Wix & Squarespace are both monthly plans that can get pricier as you move up to their higher tiers.
Transaction fees: Another thing to note is platforms Shopify and Wix have additional fees per sale which increases with the business growth.

Maybe WordPress gives you more flexibility to pick exactly what you want and pay for it only so it’s cheaper in the long run.

The Bottom Line: WordPress Saves You Money

WordPress is the best of both worlds: best bang for your buck with free software… or low cost hosting or no fees, and stuff like this WordPress will fulfill!

No matter use your WordPress as a blogger, small business owner or entrepreneur, the best CMS platform of them all for those wanting to stretch their budget and crafting a strong, flexible as hell fully customizable website is WordPress.

8. SEO and Performance

In the age of digital, a superb looking website is not your only fight and that you have not even existed to search engines like Google — until they find you aesthetically appealing. WordPress is also famous for its SEO building blocks and optimization abilities, so you already have all of that which can help you go higher, better and way faster.

Built-in SEO Features for Easy Optimization

By default, WordPress is SEO-friendly as it comes with a lot of features that make optimizing content for search engines in WordPress is easy as possible. Here are some of the inbuilt SEO features, that come with WordPress.

Customizable permalinks: WordPress provides you with SEO friendly URLs including keywords in it thus, helps search engines to understand and crawl the pages.
Content structuring: WordPress helps you in good heading tags (H1, H2, H3 etc.) structuring of the content which tells search engines about the hierarchy of your page.
Image alt texts: It is super easy to add alt text to the images that you will be including, good for image SEO and helping the search engines index your media.

These fundamental tools simplify the process of search engine optimizing your content with no extra technical finesse needed.

WordPress SEO Plugins: Supercharging Your Rankings

With WordPress, there is a strong platform; the real strength resides in the SEO Plugins available. The plugins that help push your SEO to newer Heights:

Yoast SEO: One of the most famous plugins, including features for keywords analysis, meta titles and tags, readability analysis ,also. It takes you through optimizing each page or post for the highest chance of ranking.
Rank Math: Another great plugin with a nice to manage SEO interface, also comes with fancy stuff (supporting schema markup integration/ rich snippets ,etc.) (Rank Math)
All in One SEO Pack: For the simpletons out there (plugin), it does on page SEO thingy titles tags and meta descriptions social media optimized.

These plugins are simply so easy to use that anyone from beginner to advanced user could make the simplest changes that help your WordPress optimized for better search engine visibility and all.

Speed Optimization: WordPress Performance Boost

Website speed is a major factor for improving both SEO as well as user experience. As Google looks at website speed and performance, it is fundamental the most of your site loads fast. WordPress is very flexible and has the solutions to give your website speed a much-needed lift, thankfully.

Caching Plugins: W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache, for instance are tools that create the static version of your pages to further optimize for page load times.
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): Plugins like Cloudflare let you distribute content across multiple servers around the world so the website loads faster for your end user.
Image Optimization: Plugins (Smush or ShortPixel for example) automatically compress your images for you without any loss in quality thus making the page load faster.

WordPress gives you heaps of options to speed up your site, so that your visitors enjoy it and that makes search engines see a fast and user-friendly site.

WordPress vs Other CMS: SEO Performance Comparison

In comparison to other platforms, such as Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify, the SEO WordPress seems to have more to offer for content on, and around

Flexibility in optimization: There have been some steps toward SEO in platforms like Wix, but it still lacks customization options massively. WordPress with so many plugins and theme options, you can make your site optimized from each corner.
More control over SEO elements: WordPress allows for full control over the technical SEO elements of your website, as you are allowed to edit URL structure and meta tags in plain WordPress unlike the proprietary platforms.

Simply put, WordPress gives you more control and better optimization tools, the opportunity to improve your site SEO way much beyond other CMS solutions.

Conclusion: Why WordPress is the Ultimate CMS for 2025

After exploring the advantages that WordPress offers, it’s clear why it remains the best CMS platform in 2025. From its cost efficiency and SEO capabilities to its unparalleled customization options and performance optimization, WordPress empowers you to build a website that not only looks great but also performs at its best.

But WHAT exactly makes WordPress so special? It’s the flexibility. For amateurs wanting to publish their first article, bloggers who want to improve their Website visibility or entrepreneurs who want to have an e-shop — WordPress is a perfect choice for anyone. Being open-sourced with lot of themes and plugins, this way you can build your very own website based on requirement but you need not be worried about the limitations.

It’s time to take the future of your website into your own hands! WordPress provides everything you need to build a fully functional, SEO site that is low cost, and scalable with customization. WordPress is not a CMS platform that traps you into expensive subscriptions or feature-limiting. It gives you the freedom and a complete ownership of website, so by the way your business grows, website also grows.

Okay, whether you are debating WordPress vs Wix or just want to know if WordPress is the best CMS for your requirements — WordPress is king. WordPress still reigns supreme, especially for business and bloggers looking to turn an online presence into a real estate, due to its ease-of-use, affordability and SEO capabilities.

Ready to get started? With WordPress, the possibilities are endless, and the journey is just beginning.